ENG457H1F: The English
Language in the 1770s (a revised syllabus for the future)

Course description

Colonization, commerce, codification. The empire-building efforts of the eighteenth
century saw the British and their language spread through North America, the
Caribbean, India and Australasia; the activities of explorers like Captain
James Cook and of commercial ventures like the East India Company brought
English into new worlds as well as bringing new words into English. On what
grounds did these new words become adopted into English? The middle of the
century also saw the codification and standardization of English in
dictionaries, grammars, and pronunciation manuals. To a great extent this
standardization was a commercial enterprise, carried out not by an Academy, as
in France, but instead by booksellers like Robert Dodsley. Language manuals
were produced for a market often stereotyped as the social-climbing merchant
class, represented in novels like Humphry
Clinker as mixing indiscriminately and unsanitarily in the baths of tourist
destinations like Bath. Though potentially inclusive, the standardization of
English often entrenched social divisions of class, gender, and race: it is not
at all surprising to find the Scottish critic and novelist Smollett itemizing
non-standard elements in the language of not only female but also and
especially Scottish authors. In this semester-long course, we will examine a
range of literary and non-literary texts from the 1760s and the 1770s.
Acknowledging the literary and linguistic variety of the period, we will
appreciate the complexity of the relationship between the English language(s)
and British identities in a period when the reading public could
enthusiastically and simultaneously consume not only Macpherson’s approximations
of ancient Gaelic oral epic but also Lowth’s enumerations of the grammatical
errors of authors like Shakespeare and Milton. You will also have a chance to
do research on topics beyond British borders – past students have explored the
subjectivity of place-naming by explorers like James Cook and have unravelled
the complex relationship of language and identity in British Jamaica, where
white women were sometimes represented as speakers of the despised creole.

Course overview

The first half of the
course will consist of lecture-discussion on assigned primary and secondary
readings of linguistic and literary texts. During this time, you will write two
250-word abstracts of a selection of scholarly articles; see Humanities
Abstracts online for examples. During this time you should be also reading Evelina and Humphry Clinker: before we discuss these in class, you’ll have
written an essay
on a specific comparative topic. I will also be meeting with you individually
to help you choose a subject for your seminar/research paper. We will also be
meeting at Robarts library for a special session tailored to the assignments
and activities of this course; the handout
is online.

You will present seminars
on your work in progress during the last weeks of the course.The content of this part of the course will
be determined by your own interests in conjunction with the parameters of the
course. Past papers have included place naming on the west coast of North America,
white women’s language and identity in C18th Jamaica, the dramatic implications
of the word sentiment in Sheridan’s
dramas, and language as vehicle and theme in Barbauld’s Lessons for Children. You may find inspiration in abstracts of past
papers or in
a list of suggested subjects – you’ll have to narrow them into a topic.

From weeks eight onwards,
you’ll be presenting an overview of your research to the rest of the class. A
week before you present your work, you’ll give (1) the rest of the class
appropriate readings and questions to consider and (2) me a draft of your work
in progress – I’ll email you feedback by Friday evening so that you can revise
it over the weekend. For the oral,

you’ll be evaluated not
only on your ability to present a clear and coherent and persuasive argument,
but on your ability to generate discussion after your paper. On the last day of
term, you’ll hand in the final version of your paper (4000 words) preceded by a
brief (250-500 word) abstract of it to be mounted as a “web encyclopedia”
entry.

In addition to conveying
content, the course will also teach or exercise important skills for
upper-level work in the humanities. You will use library resources to find
relevant secondary sources for your research (literary, linguistic, and
historical/cultural), write abstracts of scholarly papers (another scholar’s
and your own), and present your work to others.

Broad overview

Week 2: Standardization and codification of lexis,
grammar, and pronunciation.

Samuel Johnson’s “Preface”,
and selections from A dictionary of the
English language (1755)

Robert Lowth’s “Preface”
and selections, A short introduction to
English grammar (1762)

Thomas Sheridan’s
“Preface” and selections, General
dictionary of the English language (1780)

Tobias Smollett, a
selection of reviews
from the Critical Review (1756- ). I
have selected

reviews
of “marginal” writers: poetry and literary criticism and medical texts by
Scots, and a midwifery text by a woman.

Reviews
of texts about midwifery by the female writer Elizabeth Nihell (1760) and the
Scottish writer John Memis (1765); two medical treatises by the Scot Andrew
Wilson (1760, 1765); collections of poetry by Thomas Blacklock and other
“Scotch gentlemen” (1760-62), William Stevenson (1765), and Ossian (aka James
Macpherson) (1763); and Hugh Blair’s Critical
Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian (1763).

Week 3: Children’s literature: language, class,
and gender.

Anon. (Oliver
Goldsmith?), The History of Little Goody
Two-Shoes (1765).

Supplement
the handout (title page, a few extracts) with the first four or five chapters
from this text-only
link; I strongly urge you to read the whole text, either at the short-term
loan library (PR 3291 A1 G6 1766A) or online at the Hockliffe project’s
web site. Choose “Catalogue" and pick text 0124, or Choose
"Title" and type "Goody".

Week 2: Standardization and codification of lexis,
grammar, and pronunciation.

Q: To what extent do Johnson, Lowth,
and Sheridan imply that literary authors are the best models of English usage?

Q: Characterize the implied
audience(s) of each text.

Q: What social
significance, if any, does Smollett assign linguistic or stylistic flaws?

Q: After reading
Basker and Watts, summarize the implications of a standardized form of English
for British (Scots, Irish) speakers and writers.

Primary readings (handouts):

Samuel
Johnson’s “Preface”,
and selections from A dictionary of the
English language (1755)

Robert
Lowth’s “Preface” and selections, A short
introduction to English grammar (1762)

Thomas
Sheridan’s “Preface” and selections, General
dictionary of the English language (1780)

Tobias
Smollett, a selection of reviews
from the Critical Review (1756- ). I
have selected reviews of “marginal” writers: poetry and literary criticism and
medical texts by Scots, and a midwifery text by a woman.

Reviews
of texts about midwifery by the female writer Elizabeth Nihell (1760) and the
Scottish writer John Memis (1765); two medical treatises by the Scot Andrew
Wilson (1760, 1765); collections of poetry by Thomas Blacklock and other
“Scotch gentlemen” (1760-62), William Stevenson (1765), and Ossian (aka James
Macpherson) (1763); and Hugh Blair’s Critical
Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian (1763).

(A)Dieter Stein, “Sorting out the variants:
standardization and social factors in the

English
language 1600-1800”.

Week 3: Language, class, and gender.

Q: What are the implied rewards and
requirements of literacy?

Q: What social values are imparted
in each of these texts? Characterize each text’s implied audience.

Q: Consider the representation of
women (teachers, mothers) and of social classes.

Primary readings:

Anon.
(Oliver Goldsmith?), The History of
Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765).

Supplement
the handout (title page, a few extracts) with the first four or five chapters
from this text-only
link; I strongly urge you to read the whole text, either at the short-term
loan library (PR 3291 A1 G6 1766A) or online at the Hockliffe project’s web site. Choose “Catalogue" and
pick text 0124, or Choose "Title" and type "Goody".

Q: What is the
crisis of each play? (Roberts-Smith: “the first action; the action that
generates all of the ensuing action of the play. The moment at which the first
dramatic conflict is created?”)

Q: What is the
climax of each play? (Roberts-Smith: “the event that makes the resolution of
the play inevitable … the point after which things start to get better”)

Q: What is the
conclusion of each play? (Roberts-Smith: “the last action of the play; the
event in the play to which no event responds. The action after which nothing
can happen.”).

Q: Can you identify the “line of
action” for each play? (Hamlet’s might be “to witness”; King Lear’s “to show love” – or perhaps
“to recognize true love”; Twelfth Night
“to reveal identity”. These analyses come courtesy of a past TA for ENG220Y,
Jennifer Roberts-Smith).

Q: What values seem to be affirmed
at the conclusion of each comedy?

Q:
Identify the characters who “affect” a speech style. What is their motive for
such affectation? To what extent are they “rewarded” or “punished” for such
affectation?

Week 5: Fiction.

Primary readings:

Frances Burney, Evelina (1778)

Q: It has been argued that Mme Duval
(is she French or English?) and Captain Mirvan (how well born is he?) function
as foils for another socially ambiguous figure, Evelina herself. How might each
character’s language relate to this function? What other functions do Mme Duval
and Captain Mirvan serve? What do you make of the fact that Evelina is related
to the not very admirable Mme Duval and Lord Belmont?

Q:Some critics have argued that this novel critiques and subverts
institutionalized oppression of and violence towards women. What supporting
points can you find for this argument?

Q: Some critics have argued that
Lord Orville is effeminate. What supporting points can you find for this
argument? What are the thematic implications of such a characterization?

Q: What are some functions of
Macartney’s verses about Evelina?

Q: What are some functions of the
race between the two old women? of the “monkey” scene?

Robert
Fergusson, “To the Principal and Professors of the University of St Andrews, on
their superb treat to Dr Samuel Johnson”, “To Dr Samuel Johnson: Food for a new
Edition of his Dictionary”, and “Elegy on the death of Scots music” (handout).

Secondary readings

**Nicholas
Hudson, “Johnson’s Dictionary and the Politics of Standard English”.

Week 8: Fiction.

Q: Some critics
have argued not only that Bramble’s discontent is caused by the effect on human
relations of the improper use of colonial wealth, but also that this commercial
corruption is epitomized or exacerbated by women. What points can you find to
support these arguments?

Q: Social mixing
seems to be a bad thing in Bath but admirable on the Scottish golf course. How
can this be?

Q: Some critics
have argued that this novel reflects contemporary anxiety not only about the
effect of new wealth on class boundaries, but about the “penetration of the
colonial Other into Britain”. What points can you find to support these
arguments? Are there any positive examples of acculturation?

Q: The fact that
Humphry instinctively saves and serves Bramble, and that his “reward” at the
end is limited, is often seen as reinforcing a position of extreme social
conservatism. Can you make a case for a subversive Humphry?